YEP Letters: December 22

My sister has severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and recently we had to contact the emergency services.

The paramedics who attended had to contact an on-call doctor as they felt my sister needed antibiotics, and only a doctor can issue a prescription.

What I did not appreciate was the fact that these highly trained professionals do not have direct access to on-call doctors. They have to go through the public service number of dialling 111, talk through their assessment of the situation with a non-medical person, who has to contact a doctor, who in turn has to ring the paramedics back.

The paramedics had to wait 50 minutes for a call back from a doctor and confirmation that one would visit before they could leave my sister.

Paramedics (and on-call doctors) are the backbone and true servants of the NHS. For their time to be wasted in this way is a scandal.

Senior management have seriously got this procedure wrong and must be responsble for the increasing delay in rapid response services.

In my view this seems to be a predetermined ploy by the Goverment and senior managers to make the NHS fail, thereby leaving the way open for profit making private organisations to get their foot in the door.

Frances Heath, Rothwell

Doorbell trick on nuisances

REGARDING the take on nuisance calls. When I get nuisance calls I say, “The doorbell’s ringing” and I leave them on the phone and walk away. When I come back they have gone.

This is the way to treat these people, with the contempt they deserve.

I am ex-directory and get five or six calls a week that are unsolicited.

Also I get letters from cable firms, insurance companies, et cetera.

The way I deal with this is I write on them ‘Return to Sender’ and I give them back to the mail man to carry about.

Unsolicited mail, unsolicited phone calls, we need to get rid of them.

Roger Watkinson, Halton

Classless on our major crime?

Why do the BBC and others describe the police investigation into the deaths of three boys and a paedophile ring involving “senior” people and politicians as “sensitive”? Because the upper crust might be involved?

Corruption at the top of society?

It’s not “sensitive”, it’s revolting and should be fully punished whatever the social class of those involved.